Sunday, March 14, 2010

Enamelware & Turnarounds

This morning was lovely and slow. I made oatmeal (McCann's on the stovetop...I don't even bother with the microwave stuff anymore). I cook my oatmeal with lowfat milk and eat it with butter and honey. Washed it down with a little goat milk. Faaaaabulous!

Then I got a wild hair and decided to go to Value Village to look for some cookware. Because I'm 21, and I've been getting these weird home-maker nesting-type stirrings lately. Don't ask me why. Besides, I had some fun-money in the budget just begging to be spent.

So I drove to Value Village. I originally intended to look for a lidded glass canister to keep my oatmeal in, since it seems like the sort of thing one might display in a cool canister instead of the box. But none of the canisters were particularly to my liking. There were a few neat ones, but none of them were "the one". It's important to be picky when shopping at thrift stores. Settling is not a good idea.

As I'm looking through the other things to be seen, something catches my eye. It's this little off-white enamelware saucepan with a floral pattern on it and brass handles. And it's adorable. I picked it up, looked it over, but I really wasn't looking for cookware so I put it down. Then, around the corner, I see ANOTHER one, but it's a soup pot with handles on either side. Same pattern and maker, it seems. But the soup pot is more expensive.

Hmm. So I go looking around at everything else for a bit, but I keep straying back to these adorable pots. But I only have money for the little saucepan, so I decide to get it. The check-out girl expresses her admiration for the thing and wonders aloud if it's vintage. Heck, I have no idea.

I took it home. I wasn't home for two minutes before I grabbed another $20 (still within budget, mind you) and drove BACK to Value Village to buy the soup pot.

Well, the soup pot had a mark on the bottom. ASTA. So I looked it up when I brought them both back home. Apparently, ASTA was a German company that made enamelware in the 60s, but the factory closed in 1986 or so. So now ASTA enamelware is actually quite collectible. Can you imagine?

Since I'm no collector, I intend to USE my enamelware to cook with. They're both still perfectly functional (except for a little bit of rust on the underside of the soup pot's lid...but my mom said she'd help me clean that up).

Wanna see them?



Aww, aren't they cute? Gotta love impulse purchases. Can't wait to use them and see how they perform under pressure. Or over heat, rather.

In other news...the fuse of my car's turning signals died this evening. I did hand-signals all the way home from church. Which was actually good practice, but I'd much rather not have to. I think this is a sign that I need to extradite my intentions to get a new (used) car.

Stay tuned on that.

-The GLS

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